Activities for High Schoolers in Quarantine

 Even though families have begun “Sheltering in Place” at home to keep themselves safe, that doesn’t mean family members aren’t at risk of getting bored or on each other’s nerves. If you have a high schooler at home, chances are good they’re staying in touch with friends via their phones, but that doesn’t mean they should be left to themselves and their own devices all day every day. So, here are some examples of activities you can have your high schoolers take on while you’re all sheltering together. Create and Sell Crafts If your teen likes to sew, bead, draw, sculpt, carve, paint . . . or any number of other crafty things, this is a fabulous time for them to perfect their craft, take photos of their items and sell them online via auction houses or social media. However, if your teen has never participated in crafts, now is a great time to learn about an interesting one, and there are lots of places online that can help them with that. Examples: Skillshare.com; creativebug.com, and a gazillion places on YouTube. Digitize Photo Albums Chances are good that you or someone in your immediate family has untold numbers of old photographs taken years or many decades ago. They may have been organized into albums or just dumped into boxes. If this is the case in your family, and you have a scanner at home (if you don’t have a scanner, they’re inexpensive and can be easily ordered online and delivered to your home), why not have your teen scan these photos and put them into some type of order in a digital album that can be treasured for an unlimited number of years and shared with the rest of the extended family. This is a great way for them to really learn about their ancestors and heritage. Plus, once your teen masters this skill it’s a service they can offer as a business to other families and individuals. Hold a Cooking Challenge If your high school student enjoys cooking, raise the stakes and their interest by holding a cooking challenge at home. If you only have the one high schooler in your house, it can be an individual challenge, but if there are more than one, you can have them compete against each other or you or your spouse. This can be handled any number of ways: the teen can create their own recipe, they can try to make something from scratch without a recipe or, as with the Food Network Show “Chopped,” you can assign specific disparate ingredients from which they need to create one or more dishes. A non-competing member of the family can judge the results. Start Practicing Meditation At times like these it’s natural for people who are old enough to realize we are dealing with a rapidly escalating health crisis to become anxious. As a result, it can be tremendously helpful for people of all ages to learn how to find peace and tranquility through practices like meditation. If you’re not already someone who meditates, this is something you can learn and practice with your teen. There are a variety of sites online that teach this practice, one of which is InnerPeaceFellowship.org. Clean Out Clothes and Household Items Although it’s an old saying, there is certainly truth to the adage under the current circumstances we’re all facing that “There’s no time like the present” to clean out closets, chests of drawers, attics, basements and garages. You can assign some or all of these tasks to your teen and reward them for doing a good job by letting them keep all or part of the money they ultimately make from selling excess items online. If you’re not interested in selling the items you can keep them ready to be donated in one well-organized spot once things are back to normal. Additional Activities We’ve just scratched the surface of possible things for your high-schooler to do while stuck at home. Let them inspire you to think of other activities that would work well for the teen or teens living in your home. You might find additional points of inspiration by reading The Ultimate List of Things for Tweens and Teens to Do When They’re Bored  or at 100+ Screen Free Activities for Teens. Hang in there and remember, eventually this too will pass. Nowhere is it written that your or your family’s memories of this time need to be negative. All of us here at Ideal Homes wish you the very best of luck in making the memories of this time your family is spending together as positive as possible for all of you.